From his wheelchair in a Lucas County courtroom Thursday, Michael McCloskey didn’t mince words: He forgave the former police officer who shot and paralyzed him in 2009 and gave his blessing to a plea agreement that ended the case.
Mr. White, who was looking at a second trial on a more serious charge of felonious assault for shooting Mr. McCloskey in the back during a traffic stop, pleaded no contest to assault, a first-degree misdemeanor.
On May 23rd, 2009, in an act of cowardice, Ottawa Hills police officer Thomas White shot motorcyclist Michael McCloskey in the back, paralyzing him from the waist down. Thomas White is completely unrepentant. I wrote about the case here, Cop Shooting - (ex) Officer Thomas White is Still Free, and here, in Ottawa Hills Shooting.
On December 15th, 2016, (7 years, 6 months, and 23 days later) the case was finally resolved. White got a plea bargain, pleaded no contest, was found guilty by the judge and got a 90-day jail term, sentence suspended, and one year of probation. White also had to surrender his peace officer certificate.
White has never done any jail time. He remains a free man, completely unrepentant, likely congratulating himself on a job well done.
This no good SOB belongs in prison, doing 25 to life at hard time. I always suspected something like this would happen, and my suspicions were well founded.
